The Journey to Becoming a Gurkha: Who Gets Chosen? | Kesang Tseten Documentary

WHO WILL BE A GURKHA? - from Kesang Tseten Genres: Documentary Duration: 49 minutes Availability: Worldwide Whosoever fought alongside or against these men feared or derided them, but all were smitten by them. ‘Bravest of the brave,’ and loyal – ‘never had a country more faithful friends;’ ‘gentle and jolly and yet the ‘deadliest natural-born killers,’ as a British officer put it, intending it a term of endearment. The Gurkhas began soldiering for the British colony in India 200 years ago, following a war in which the two were enemies. Impressed with the raw fighting prowess of the khukuri-wielding Nepalis, who seemed not to fear death, Britain began recruiting them. In the following centuries, these soldiers have seen more continuous fighting than any in the world, deployed in one war after another, from Borneo, Burma and Africa, to France, Italy, the Falklands and, more recently, Iraq and Afghanistan. The recruitment of the Gurkhas has been a subject of much fascination, this despite the fact that the number of Gurkhas recruited for the British Army has dwindled from the 200,000 who fought during the Second World to a couple hundred. Young Nepalis, however, continue to be lured to become ‘lahureys’, the common name for ‘Gurkhas’, named after Lahore, then the conscripting base. Today’s potential recruits are not rustic hill boys – a far cry from when conscriptors combed the hills for raw material, ‘the better if illiterate’ – but a new generation of urban=based Nepalis with a school or higher education, attracted by wages equaling British soldiers now, undergoing one of the most grueling tests, with some unique elements. Selection also means partaking of the myth and glamour of the Gurkhas, adventure and danger, in spite of the very real prospect of dying in battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq. The recruitment, carried out with meticulous planning and execution in the confined setting of the British Gurkha Camp in Pokhara, within sight of Macchapuchare, Annapurnas and Dhaulagiri, presents an elaborate modern-day ritual born in the days of Empire. It shows the processes of the army as an institution, except that these young men are joining someone else’s army. A fascinating disjunction of two cultures. The film offers a unique multi-layering of people, institutions and societies, British and Nepali, officers and applicants, and their multi worlds. Kesang Tseten’s Who Will Be a Gurkha (2012) is a corporeal film full of movement, exertion, physicality, and masculine energy. The film follows the archaic selection process of young Nepali men into the British Army as they undergo a series of physical examinations, tests of strength, odd interviews, and verbal exams. Propelled by an organic visual narrative of suspense and competition, we are quickly drawn into the story. Tsetsen’s camera invites us alongside the hopes and insecurities of young men who dream of becoming Gurkha soldiers and the fame, respect, and employment stability they believe it promises. “I’m very happy to go to Afghanistan,” a recruit says to the British officer during his interview. “But it’s a very dangerous place,” the British officer replies. “Would you be happy to put your life in danger?” Through their measured composure and premeditated answers, it becomes clear that the young men are willing to do anything to become the next Gurkhas. Throughout the film, Tseten splices contemporary shots with archival footage of Gurkha soldiers undergoing identical examinations and measurements. A series of uncanny corporeal resemblances and colonial-era anthropometrics suggest that little has changed over the past century. The gestures, expressions, and techniques of the body overlay the past onto the present in a double exposure. Two hundred thousand Nepalis fought for the British Army in WWI and WWII in exchange for a pension and passport to the UK. This mercenary tradition began during the period of British colonial rule in India and has continued into the contemporary wars of empire. Throughout the film, Tseten suspends viewers into a space of ambivalence, refusing to provide a one-sided narrative of neocolonial exploitation. Instead of offering a clear-cut story of good and bad, oppressed and oppressor, Tseten presents us with a more complex picture that places the aspirations of young men at its center. In doing so, Who Will Be a Gurkha invites us to contemplate the convoluted depths of imperial relations; how the allure and desire to fight foreign wars can coexist alongside critique, and more generally, why so many young Nepalis continue to see this as an opportunity worth living and dying for. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact info:- • Facebook:   / begurkha.np   • Instagram:   / begurkha   • Twitter:   / begurkha